Éric Cordier, Briezhiselad (Erewhon)

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Éric Cordier´s cousin brought him a 10", 1960s reissue of traditional Breton music he found in their grandmother´s house. The grooves in the disc itself were nearly polished bald by the ravages of time. Cordier, however, saw the opportunity to both celebrate the heritage of French Brittany and use the wear and tear as an integral component of the project, the "music", if you will, accompanying the vocals.

He "rearranged" two tracks - one written in the 16th century, the other a 19th-century adaptation of a Welsh original (common Celtic roots, of course) - by removing the "sugary, churchy" accompaniment and transposing only the original vocals to tape. Having done so, he resuscitated this ancient music armed only with a delay pedal, sound processor and "handmade devices".

The results are six long tracks spread over seventy-two minutes. The voices are generally just barely distinguishable, but this lends the recording an added, spectral dimension, as if Breton culture calls out to us over the centuries, transmitting on a frequency that is not entirely reliable - listen closely or it may be lost forever. The lovely choral of "Vieux pays de mes pères", on the other hand, rings clear and true.

For a long time, the language of the Bretons was persecuted and supressed, like those of many other minority cultures in Europe. An upswing in ethnic consciousness after the war turned these songs into national treasures. Cordier, with a Ph.D in ethnology as well as a career playing hurdy-gurdy music before gravitating toward electronic and improvisational music, has committed an act of cultural preservation and renewal worthy of high praise. A straightforward, seven-minute long field recording seems out of place on the record, but this is the only thing marring on an otherwise impressive work of art.